Lord Pearson of Rannoch: My Lords, what do the Government think of the latest Civitas research, which can find no discernible benefit from our membership of the EU single market and customs union since we joined it? Is it not also true that the EU needs our free trade very much more than we need its? Is it not also the single market that inflicts Brussels overregulation on the 90% of our economy which does not cede into it, and which has stopped us doing free trade deals with the markets of the future? Is not the single market a pretty good disaster?

Earl of Clancarty: My Lords, I apologise for not having spoken at Second Reading. I want, however, to speak to Amendment 74, to which I have put my name, and to Amendment 79B.
I very much support Amendment 74, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, although I am delighted that there is now a firm agreement between the interested parties—including CILIP, ALCS and the Society of Authors, among others—for an amendment which is almost but not quite the same as Amendment 74. I hope that this tweaked amendment, which clarifies the nature of what is being loaned, or an amendment equally acceptable to all parties, can be brought forward by the Government and accepted on Report.
The last study into earnings commissioned by ALCS, published in 2015, found that the median income for professional authors was only £11,000, with authors sometimes earning nothing in a year. PLR, while being a modest payment—as the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, has pointed out—of about 7p a book, can therefore be a significant part of the income for many authors, as well as illustrators, photographers, translators and editors. The carefully set cap of £6,600 on individual earnings from PLR means that there is a fair distribution of the pot without inordinate benefit for the high earners. Also, in his 2013 review on e-lending William Sieghart says that,
“for writers, the extension of PLR to the digital and audio world would allow for much more accurate financial recognition for the borrowing of their books”.
PLR is a legal and, I believe, a moral right, which in the modem age should be applied to the digital format as much as the physical. Particularly considering that over 3 million e-book loans were made in 2016 alone, removing the anomaly of the absence of PLR for the remote e-lending of e-books and audiobooks cannot come a moment too soon. Indeed, Matt Hancock said in the other place on 28 November last year that the Government will,
“bring forward legislation as soon as possible”.—[Official Report, Commons, 28/11/16; col. 1341]
This followed the European Court of Justice’s ruling that e-lending is allowable under the “one copy, one user” principle, removing a final barrier to a go-ahead. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce PLR for e-lending, and in this Bill an appropriate place to do so. The cost of introduction would be low. There will be no better chance, so I hope that the Government will support this.
Amendment 79B would remove a parallel anomaly. The Society of Authors rightly argues that e-books should be VAT exempt in the same way that print books are—for the reason that VAT on either would be, or is in the case of e-books, a tax on knowledge. The Society of Authors say that VAT on e-books is,
“a barrier to education and research, to adult literacy and to book sales in general”.
Adult literacy, in particular, urgently needs to be encouraged in every way possible, and this is one way to do so.